Students get 99 lashes each for going to mixed-sex graduation party in Iran

A group of more than 30 students in Iran has been flogged for attending a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony.

The students, who were described by prosecutor Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki as being 'half naked' at a graduation party at a villa in Qazvin, were sentenced to 99 lashes each for their presence at the event, Mizan News Agency reported.

"After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin ... all the participants at the party were arrested," Niaraki told Mehr.

"Thank God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours."

None of the students at the mixed-gender party were related to one another, the prosecutor said, and have already had their sentences for attending the party carried out by the morality police.

The regime's prosecutor said the judiciary would not tolerate "law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies."

Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on Thursday said: "This barbaric act once again proves that moderation during Hassan Rouhani's Presidency is nothing but a myth.

"Three years after Hassan Rouhani's presidency, the human rights situation in Iran is deteriorating in every aspect. This also shows the regime's fragile state and total isolation among the Iranian people, in particular among the youths. The notion advocated by some in the West that this regime has a future is totally naive."